1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus control technique.
2. Description of the Related Art
These days, MFPs (Multi Function Peripheral) having print, facsimile, and copy functions are gaining advanced functions to perform various processes in printing. For example, MFPs can execute integration processing such as N-up to integrate a plurality of pages into one sheet in printing, additional information (e.g., watermark) processing, stapling, bookbinding processing, and color processing.
In the POD (Print On Demand) business field, various print settings are demanded in small-volume printing, and it is required to create sophisticated printed materials using a high-end printing apparatus. These print settings include a setting to add additional information to only an arbitrary page, and a setting to chapter a whole document and staple each chapter.
In general, a control program (printer driver) which controls a printing apparatus cannot grasp in advance the whole structure of a document to be printed, and sets processing functions for the entire document. To create a sophisticated printed material by adding additional information to only an arbitrary page, the printer driver must cooperate with an application which grasps an entire document.
For example, when a print setting is made to chapter one document, settings desired by a user for each chapter can be attained by dividing one document into a plurality of documents formally corresponding to chapters and making print settings for each document.
A user selectively uses an application according to the application purpose. When a user utilizes an application which cannot make print settings for each page, he cannot obtain a desired sophisticated printed material. It is difficult to finely control a printing apparatus via an application, and the ability of the printing apparatus cannot be fully exploited.
To solve this problem, there has been proposed a technique of designating functions for each page via the user interface of a printer driver (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-316835). According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-316835, an exceptional setting or function is designated for each page, unlike normal settings of an entire print document. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-316835 discloses a mechanism of designating settings different from those of an entire document in association with a page number.
Based on this mechanism, the printer driver can designate common print settings of a printing apparatus and exceptional print settings of a specific page regardless of an application.
However, functional development of printing apparatuses and an increase in the number of setting items by printer drivers lead to poor operability. It is difficult for a user to grasp exceptional settings different from common print settings.
There is available a printer driver called a family driver for creating a plurality of printing apparatus drivers with the same source codes. This printer driver must cope with both a printing apparatus capable of exceptional page settings and a printing apparatus incapable of exceptional page settings. When viewed from the development of printer drivers, complicated exceptional settings decrease the development efficiency.